Electron deficient molecular moieties are important in organic electron and photonic materials for optoelectronic applications such as in organic light emitting diodes (OLED), organic photovoltaics (OPV), dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC), organic field effect transistors (OFET), and the like.
Electron deficient moieties can be used to adjust the properties of materials to, for example: match the properties of other materials present in a device (e.g., work function of electrodes); shift the wavelength at which the material absorbs (e.g., λmax); provide highly electron deficient materials that may function as electron transport materials while being relatively stable to oxygen; and so on.
Often, in order to incorporate such electron deficient moieties into materials, one or more organometallic coupling reactions, such as Stille coupling, Suzuki coupling, Kumada coupling, or Heck coupling can be used. However, methods of incorporating electron deficient moieties into materials using such coupling methodologies generally suffer from: the coupling partner (e.g., organometallic or halide/pseudohalide containing derivative) having the electron deficient moiety being unstable itself (e.g., electron deficient tin (Stille) reagents) and/or the electron deficient moiety being difficult to synthesize since they either often require lithiation of an electron deficient species that itself may decompose in the presence of nucleophilic lithium reagents or require halogenation of the electron deficient compound, which requires harsh, environmentally harmful, and sometimes ineffective halogenation conditions.
Challenges and difficulties remain in the synthesis of electron-deficient materials using traditional cross-coupling reactions (i.e., Stille, Suzuki, Kumada, Heck).
Thus, there exists a need for development of materials having new electron deficient moieties which can be synthesized using alternative and relatively mild reaction methods and/or processes.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide materials and polymers having electron deficient moieties which may be used as organic electronic and photonic materials.
It is a further object of the invention to provide relatively mild reaction methods for synthesizing such materials and polymers.